Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The past few months have been so busy for me that I've had little time to devote to regular posts, but I should be back on track shortly. As for this week's new releases, here is the book you should be paying attention to, in comic shops today...

EC Comics - Two of Fantagraphics' new line of EC Comics collections debut today! EC Harvey Kurtzman: Corpse of the Imjin and Other Stories and EC Wally Wood: Came the Dawn and Other Stories HC.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Here is the book you should be paying attention to, in comic shops tomorrow...

Building Stories HC - Good lord, there are a lot of good releases this week. It's that time of year when publishers are putting out their high quality material for the holidays, including several books that are certainly contenders for some of the best graphic novel releases of the year, including Theo Ellsworth's The Understanding Monster, Adrian Tomine's New York Drawings, the first volume in the Pippi Longstocking reprint series and the latest edition of the Best American Comics anthology, edited this year by Franoise Mauly. The most exciting of the new releases, however, would have to be the highly-anticipated masterpiece from Chris Ware, Building Stories, an elaborately designed book that's $50, and worth every penny. It's been a long time coming, and is sure to be on the top of many lists as the best thing to come from comics this year.

Monday, October 08, 2012

The latest issue of the Fables spin-off title, Fairest, begins a new story arc featuring Rapunzel, written by a new creative team. I have to say that I was a little let down by the first arc of this series, from Fables series creator Bill Willingham, especially since it picked up a pretty exciting storyline from that main title. It felt drawn out and it was kind of dull overall. So I'm happy to report that with this new storyarc, Lauren Beukes injects some life back into this title with a stunning story that promises some cool Japanese mythology to come. It seems like a no-brainer that a series featuring the women from Fables would be written by a woman, but this is the first issue that that's the case, and Lauren Beukes takes the reins on the title masterfully, easily putting out the best issue to date. In this story, we see Rapunzel receive a mysterious message insinuating that her children may still be alive, in a story that takes place prior to the first issue of Fables. It's neat to see characters like Snow White and Bigby in their iconic first roles again, and it makes for an interesting time frame for the story. Anyway, Rapunzel recognizes the kanji on the message from the Hidden Kingdom, which could mean that a gate to the Homelands in Japan has been opened. And since Snow and Bigby will not investigate it with the urgency that Rapunzel feels it deserves, she takes matters into her own hands, recruiting fan-favorite bad boy Jack, as well as her hair stylist, a character that I really, really like named Joel. There are plenty of cool scenes here, particularly with Totenkinder, revealed to be her mother, who locked her in the tower from the classic fable. The set-up here is great, with a nice balance of characters, and an intriguing mystery. The art from Inaki Miranda is a little stiff at times, but I rather like the look of it, especially some of the clothing and character designs. If you dropped this title due to the slog the first arc proved to be, I recommend giving Fairest another chance, beginning with this issue.

Here are the books that caught my eye in Previews Catalogue, for books
shipping to comic shops in October...

Uncanny Avengers #1 - Rick Remender and John Cassaday team up for the new flagship title in Marvel's Marvel NOW! with a team made up of a mixture of Avengers and X-Men characters, with Havok taking center stage.

The Understanding Monster (Volume 1) GN - Theo Ellsworth's Capacity was one of my favorite comics from 2008, and finally, we get his follow up!!!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Annual 2012 - Co-creator Kevin Eastman writes and draws a full TMNT comic for the first time in almost twenty years! Also available this month, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures (Volume 2) TP, in which the Archie material begins to venture away from adaptations of the classic cartoon series, and venture into exciting, new territory.

Wolverine: MAX #1 - A new ongoing series, which appropriately lets creators cut loose with one of the more brutal and bloody Marvel characters out there.

Scary #1 - IDW's monthly releases of classic comics like Popeye and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are a real treat, so this new effort from the Yoe Books! imprint sounds awesome: Monthly comics featuring horror tales like Dick Briefer's Frankenstein and Bob Powell's Terror and Zombies. Should be hella fun.

Ralph Azham (Volume 1): "Why Would You Lie To Someone You Love?" - A new landscape-format collection featuring the Ralph Azham comics of Lewis Trondheim.

AVX: Consequences #1 (of 5) - Directly spinning out of Avengers vs. X-Men, this will continue the story from where next week's final issue of the crossover leaves off.

The Best American Comics 2012 HC - The latest edition of The Best American Comics anthology is edited by Francoise Molly, and features plenty of amazing comics from creators like Gary Panter, Charles Burns and Chester Brown, showcasing some of the best of what comics had to offer in the previous year.

August Moon GN - A new beautiful-looking all-ages graphic novel from Top Shelf and Diana Thung.

DC Comics: The New 52 Zero Omnibus HC - All 56 #0 issues from September are collected together in this massive hardcover.

Red She-Hulk #58 - Red She-Hulk takes over Hulk this month, as she moves into the spotlight courtesy of Jeff Parker, Carlo Pagulayan and Wellington Alves.

Lot 13 #1 - A new DC horror series from Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and Glenn Fabry (Preacher).

A-Babies vs. X-Babies #1 - Overload on cuteness with Skottie Young and Guruhiro's cartoony baby battle. You'll see plenty of "Baby" variants this month throughout Marvel titles this month as well.

Sailor Twain GN - Mark Siegel weaves a tale of intersecting lives on the Hudson in this brand new graphic novel from First Second Books.

Mega Man Megamix 3-Volume Set - The out-of-print fan-favorite manga by Hitoshi Ariga becomes available once more in a new set of three books. Also back in print this month in a boxset is the amazing classic by Hayao Miyazaki, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Multimple Warheads: Alphabet To Infinity #1 (of 4) - A new mini from Brandon Graham, creator of the acclaimed comic King City.

Punisher: War Zone #1 (of 5) - Greg Rucka ends his run on Punisher with this mini-series featuring Frank Castle gunning after various Avengers.

Heads or Tails SC - A new short story collection featuring the work of Lilli Carre (The Lagoon).Problematic: Selected Sketchbooks Drawings 2004-2011 HC - A rare glimpse into creator Jim Woodring's moleskin sketchbooks, courtesy of Fantagraphics.

Star Trek: The Newspaper Strips (Volume 1) HC - I doubt these deserve such a treatment, but these rare strips are being collected for the Star Trek completest nonetheless. Who knows? They could be awesome.

A+X #1 -This is a new team-up series that will see an Avenger and an X-Men get together in one of two stories each issue (much like Avengers vs. X-Men: VS). This first issue sees Jeph Loeb and Warren Ellis on writing chores.

The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel (Volume 1) GN - Cassandra Clare's prequel to her stellar Mortal Instruments series gets the graphic novel treatment, thanks to HyeKyung Baek. Also available this month, the second book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, New Moon begins to get illustrated.